ACTION OF THE HEART. 317 



atropin containing 1 eq. of methyl ammonium instead of 1 eq. of hydrogen), 

 couium, daturin, together with physostigmin, aconitin, delphinin, veratrin, 

 first, or in small doses, stimulate and then loiver or abolish the excitability 

 of the inhibitory centres. 1 The intracardiac inhibitory centres are stim- 

 ulated by muscarin, and with suitable arrangements to prevent desiccation 

 the heart of a frog may be kept motionless in diastole for hours under its 

 influence, but if it be acted upon by a solution of atropin it soon again re- 

 sumes its ordinary movements. Referring to Fig. 127, it may be said that 

 the cardio-inhibitory fibres of the vagus are excited by nicotin and paralyzed 

 by woorara, that the intracardiac inhibitory centre is excited by muscarin, 

 and that the connecting filaments, c, F, between the intracardiac inhibitory 

 and motor centres are paralyzed by atropin and excited by Calabar bean. 

 [Lobelina, like conia and nicotina, paralyzes the pueumogastrics.] 2 



247. There seems adequate reason to believe that the whole, or very nearly 

 the whole, of the blood contained in the Ventricles is discharged from them 

 at each systole; for the left ventricle is very frequently found quite empty 

 after death ; and if a transverse section be made through the heart, when in 

 a state of well-marked rigor mortis (which may be considered as represent- 

 ing its ordinary state of complete contraction), the ventricular cavity is 



zu Wiirzburg, 1867, p. 1), paralyzes the terminal branches of the vagus in the heart. 

 The feeble influence exerted by the vagus over the cardiac movements in rabbits ex- 

 plains in part their immunity from the injurious effects of large doses of the poison 

 (see Dr. Ogle, Med. Times and Gaz., 1867, p. 466). For other papers on the action 

 of poison* on the heart, see Boehm (Studien iib. Herzgifte, Pamphlet and Abstract 

 in Centralblatt, 1871, p. 584), Basch and User (Wirkungen des Nicotins, Wien. Med. 

 Jlihrb., 1872, p. 367), Polaillon et Carville (Les Effets Toxiques de 1'Inee, Poisons 

 de Paboions), Gabor (Archiv d. Physiol , 1872, pp. 523 and 680), Aekermann ( Wir- 

 kungen des Digitaiins, Deutsche Archiv f. Klin. Med., 1872, Bd. xi, 12-~>),and Volk- 

 mann's Sammlung Klin. Vortrage, No. 48 ; Brunton (On Digitalis, 1868), Fothergill 

 (Digitalis, 1871), Oulmont and Laurent (On Hyoscyamin and Daturia, Archiv. de 

 Physiol., Nos. 2 and 3, 1870), Holmes (On Ergot, Arch, de Phys., 1870, p. 384), Fick 

 (Die Wirkung des Sparteins, Archiv f. Experiment Path., Bd. i, 1873, p 397), Nun- 

 neley ( Proc. Roy. Soc., June, 1869, and Practitioner, 1869, p. 347, action of atropin, 

 digitalin, aconitin, strychnia, veratria, morphia, nicotin, conium, and bromide of 

 potassium), Arnstein and Sustschinsky (Ueber die Wirkung des Calabar auf die Herz- 

 nerven, in Wiirzburg Phys. Untersuch., Bd. iii), Buchheim and Loos (Neb. die 

 Pharm. Gruppe des Curarins, Pamphlet), Wood (Viridia and Veratroidia, Amer. 

 Journ. of Med. Sci., 1870), Weyland (Vergleich Unters. iiber Veratrin, Sabadillin, 

 Dolphin, Emetin, Aconitin, Sanguinarin, and Chlorkalin), Blake (Action of Inor- 

 ganic Substances when introduced directly into the Blood, Journ. of Anat. and 

 Physiol., 1870 and 1873), and many others. Much discussion has arisen in regard 

 to the question whether the inhibitory power of the pneumogastric nerves upon the 

 heart is affected by the administration of woorara, Bernard (Lemons sur les Effets 

 des Substances Toxiques, 1857, pp. 348, 352, 373), Kolliker (Virchow's Archiv, Bd. 

 x, 11, 17, 39, 73, and Med. Central Zeitung, 1858, No. 58), Heidenhain (Allg. Med. 

 Central Zeit., 1858, No. 64), Funke (Lelirbuch, 4th edit, 1863, pp. 959 and 979), 

 Goltz (Virchow's Archiv, Bd. xxvi, p. 2J), and Budge (Physiologic, 1862, p. 519), 

 considering it to be proved that these nerves are rendered incapable of transmitting 

 their inhibitory influence; whilst v. Bezold (Central. Zeit., 1858, Nos. 49 and 59), 

 Vulpian (Gaz. Med. de Paris, 1858, No. 27, p. 429), Meissner (Zeits. f. Rat. Med., 

 8 R., Bd. vi, p. 506), Bidder (Reichert's Archiv, 18G5, No. 3, p. 337), contend that 

 this agent does not paralyze the vagi, no loss of regulatory or inhibitory power being 

 observable between poisoned and healthy animals. Bidder arrived at the latter con- 

 clusion in reference to the splanchnic nerves, and their influence upon the intestines. 

 He noticed also, in opposition to Kolliker, that in poisoning by woorara great dilata- 

 tion of the pupil, indicating the persistence of the agency of the sympathetic, oc- 

 curred, and he perceived no indications of paralysis of the vaso-motor nerves. This 

 contradictory testimony is probably referable to differences in the composition of 

 the poison and in the quantity administered. 



1 See Rossbach, Verhand. d. Med., Verhand. zu Wiirzburg, and Boehm, op. cit. 



2 [I. Ott, Physiolog. Action of Lobelina, Phila. Med. Times.] 



